ONTARIO, OH- Since there is no high school spring football in Ohio, teams are allotted ten days of workouts over the summer which can be spread out over the months of June and July. At Ontario, head coach Chris Hawkins who begins his second season as coach of the Warriors, says the ten days given by the OHSAA are very important.

"We don't have spring ball, we only get ten days. So I told our coaches we have to make the most of this. We've been talking about exactly what we want to cover. We've changed up a little bit. What we do is we use three of out camp days, then go to a seven-on-seven down in Dublin on Saturday then we take three to four weeks of lifting, then come back in the middle of July. These ten days are important because we don't want to be teaching during two-a-days."

For nose tackle Mitch Pittman, the second season under Hawkins has started smoother. "It's actually a lot easier than last year. We're going through the same stuff and everyone has an idea of who coach Hawkins is and what his goals are for the team so it's a lot easier."

"I think I'm way further ahead considering the confidence level is better," said sophomore quarterback Cameron Todd. "Because last year I struggled with the plays too much now I'm just reacting to what the defense gives me."

"The goal of this summer stuff is we want to teach everything during June and July," said Hawkins. So when our first practice comes we don't want to be teaching we want to be refining and improving on what we taught.

Ontario will open the season on the road at rival Lexington. The Warriors will also be a part of a new Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference with Clear Fork, Galion, Marion Harding, River Valley, North Union, Marion Pleasant, and Buckeye Valley. The team will try to improve on last season's 4-6 finish.